The world of cross-fit and specialized athlete training is not a new one. These types of workouts have been a rising trend in the fitness and organized sport industry.

There are quite a few cross-fit gyms that dot the Metro offering individuals the chance to improve their health and fitness through a variety of activities designed to get the most out of the person.

While most are the same one is different. CoreAthletic in Riverside offers the standard cross-fit training but also has a team sport side that allows individuals and teams train together.

The facility located at 305 NW Business Park Lane in Riverside is a 10,000 square foot space that allows small groups and large teams to train together.

One team that took advantage of this new facility and unique training this offseason was Park Hill’s football team. Due to construction at the high school the weight room was not fully accessible to the team this past summer and new head coach Josh Hood had to find a new way to train his team.

The work not only made his team bigger, faster and stronger but it also was a way to build team unity.

“What we’ve gained from this experience is a more intense atmosphere,” Hood said. “It’s a competitive environment which is what our program needed. We are trying to elevate ourselves to the next level and this was the right place to do it. CoreAthletics provided us a place to be competitive and work out every day in a different atmosphere using a lot of different machines and pieces that we don’t have at the school. We got an experience that a lot of colleges and high schools don’t have.”

The ability to bring teams of all ages and sizes into the facility is what makes CoreAthletic different. Park Hill brought its football and volleyball teams this summer and North Kansas City has had both its girls and boys basketball teams there so far this fall.

CoreAthletic’s Director of Sports Performance Chad Drehle said the ability to train the individual and the team is a big advantage for CoreAthletic.

“It is group training with the cross-fit piece and a sports performance piece,” Drehle said. “We also have some crossover classes in there as well to hit a larger audience than just cross-fit.

“Most of your cross-fit boxes are your smaller dungeon, garage looking places. We wanted to separate ourselves with our product and we looked inside. We decided to add the sports performance component to that and kind of give us a crossover so we can train the parent while we are training the student athlete at the same time.”

The facility has 4,000 square feet of cross-fit and strength training. There is also 7,000 square feet of turf that is for the sports performance training. There is a general sports training program along with specific sports training like football, basketball, baseball and volleyball.

“Our space is what separates us,” Drehle said. “With 10,000 square feet we’ve had up to 90 kids in here at the same time. We would split 45 over on the strength side and then 45 over on the sports performance side. So they could do 45 minutes and then flip them. In an hour and a half they got both the strength component and the sports performance which is the speed, agility, plyometric, power side they get all of that in an hour and half in 90 minutes.

“It’s amazing what we can do compared to what they can do in their own weight room. It’s just the efficiency that we can get things done here is the difference.”